By Hayden Seder
In the last several issues of The Weekly Sun, the many facets of this heavy snow year have been explored, from who in the Valley has been out there working harder and longer hours to ensure the uninterrupted flow of citizens’ daily lives, to how individual business and family budgets have been affected. Just like with many people around town who had to pay unexpected expenses and may have had to adjust budgets, so too have Blaine County and Wood River Valley cities.
The snow year isn’t over, so each city is tracking and compiling data on how much has already been spent on snow removal as compared to other years, whether the budget was enough to cover this year, and how to revise future budgets due to extreme weather trends. Here are their stories.
Ketchum
The City of Ketchum is approximately 75 percent of the way through its FY19 budget, which includes $182,000 for snow removal, according to Lisa Enourato, Ketchum assistant city administrator.
“This is the same budget level of the past several years,” Enourato said.
While the heavy snow seems to have ceased falling, the snow season is not over. Should Ketchum’s budget be exceeded, the city looks to achieve operational savings in other areas.
“Because that is an ongoing effort across all departments, we don’t have a target area at this point,” Enourato said. “Ketchum is also fortunate to have LOT (local option tax) revenues which can support our efforts.”
For future years, Ketchum has no active plans to raise the snow removal budget. Between operational savings and LOT funds, the city has been able to absorb additional snow removal expenses, an area that is 0.2 percent of the general fund budget.
Sun Valley
While the City of Sun Valley hasn’t received bills from all of its vendors involved in snow removal—fuel, plow blades, rental equipment, winter traction sand, overtime pay, and unexpected equipment repairs—the amount of funds spent for this year are roughly triple the budget for snow expenses last year and just slightly more than fiscal year 2016/17.
According to Bill Whitesell, street superintendent for the City of Sun Valley, the cost for snow expenses for fiscal year 2018/19 is $65,000 versus $21,546 for 2017/18 and $62,246 for 2016/17.
Despite increasing extreme weather patterns, the city has no plans at this time to increase the budget for snow-related expenses in the future.
Bellevue
The City of Bellevue could not provide details regarding snow removal budgets before press time.
Hailey
Brian Yeager, City of Hailey Public Works director/city engineer/land surveyor, compared numbers with the winter of 2016/17 which was another big snow year. For that year, $132,500 was budgeted for snow removal and $230,831 ended up being spent. For this year, $185,251 was budgeted and $246,227 has been spent.
“The $61,000 overrun will be deducted from our summer maintenance program,” Yeager said. “Or to say it another way, after our snow removal cost overrun, then after whatever expenses we incur for flooding or the proliferation of potholes because of the type of winter we had, whatever is remaining of our original annual budget can be expended on summer maintenance projects such as chip seals.”
Yeager is also quick to point out that the inches of plowed snow this year increased by 46 percent over the 2016/17 numbers while the snow removal expense only increased by 6.7 percent.
“While a significant portion of this cost efficiency is due to how the snow fall occurred, a good portion of it is also due to the city focusing on using staff and overtime instead of as much reliance on contractor labor,” Yeager said. “We’re very proud of the effort and commitment of our crews this winter.”
For future years, Yeager says budget increases are a constant challenge.
“The city budget funded by property tax revenue can only increase by 3 percent annually and, therefore, our snow removal budget has limited ability to increase despite what may or may not happen with climate.”
When the snow melts…
SANDBAGS
Hailey: The City of Hailey will provide sandbag stations near an area in which flooding has begun. These are intended to be for emergency use when the private property protection already completed is not sufficient. The city does not recommend waiting for city sandbags to begin protecting your structures.
Sandbag stations for Woodside, Foxmoor and Deerfield in East Hailey areas will be at the south side of the Community Campus parking lot.
Sandbag stations for Della View will be on War Eagle Drive near Silver Star Dr.
Sandbag stations for Sherwood Forest will be on Robin Hood Drive near Silver Star Dr.
Sandbag stations for China Gardens and Elmwood will be on Walnut Street near Aspen Drive.
For purchase:
Offering complete service: sacks, sand, placement and cleanup.
All Seasons Landscaping: (208) 788-3352
Big Wood Landscape: (208) 726-4667
Clearwater Landscaping: (208) 788-5486
Webb Landscaping: (208) 726-4927
Sun Valley Garden Center: (208) 788-3533
Will have empty bags for purchase by the public.
PipeCo: (208) 725-7824
ALERT SYSTEM
Sign up for Blaine County’s Code Red Alert to receive emergency communications via cellphone or landline phone, text message, email or social media channels. Sign up at public.coderedweb.com.
INSURANCE
State officials recommend visiting floodsmart.gov to find out more about flood insurance, why it is needed, how to purchase flood insurance and more. Flood insurance must be in effect 30 days prior to any flood event before damage will be covered.